You've worked hard to lead prospects to your website. But you're not done yet. Test-drive your online forms--they could be blocking the business opportunities your marketing campaigns are bringing in.

An online form allows prospects to take a variety of actions: contact you, subscribe to your e-zine, request information and, of course, order something. A form is a communication tool for them and a marketing tool for you. You need an online form to collect contact information and to get permission to communicate with prospects. Otherwise, once they leave your site, they could be gone forever.

An online form itself isn't effective marketing, however. In fact, if you're committing the following mistakes, yours could be costing you customers.

Requiring unnecessary information: Do you really need prospects to provide personal information such as a company title, phone number, mailing address and registration of a login name and password? If not, remove these fields or label them as optional.

Restricting open fields: Ever type so many characters that a field ended before you finished? Expand the length of your fields to account for long names, e-mail addresses and other information you require.

Forcing repeat work: If your forms are not completed correctly, are prospects forced to start over? They won't. Be sure to retain the information already entered while pointing out the area that needs attention.